Growing Guides
A How-To & Tips Section for Garden and Fresh Market Growers
Tomatoes – From Seed to Sauce Part 8 – Supports – Hold Me Up
Tomatoes are true vines, and if allowed, can travel many feet from where they are planted. Most tomatoes are grown vertically for good reasons; they take up less garden space, are less prone to disease and are easier to harvest. But they need support to grow up rather...
Tomatoes – Seed to Sauce Part 7 – Hardening Off & Planting – It’s a Process
The last frost has past, the days are longer and sunny, the soil is warm, and it’s time to move your tomato plants out into the garden. With all the care, preparation and ‘training’ your plants have received, they’re still not ready. Mother Nature can be very hard on...
Please Plant the Peas
There’s something special about maintaining a gardening tradition. Most garden customs, even if they are steeped in legend, have a good reason for the practice. Maybe your grandmother planted flowers around her vegetables. Flowers planted in with the vegetables will...
Tomatoes From Seed to Sauce – Part 6 – Thinning and Transplanting
If more than one tomato seed germinates in a single soil cell, you have 2 choices. You can try to ‘prick out’ the seedlings, transplanting them into separate soil cells when they are still small or you can thin out the smallest seedlings leaving the healthiest one. It...
Tomatoes – From Seed to Sauce Part 5 – What’s Wrong With My Tomato Plant – Problems to Watch for Now and Later.
What’s wrong with my plant? Trying to figure that out can be challenging. Here are a few common issues you might run into, their causes and ways to correct the problem. Germination and the early growth stages: These issues can happen when you first plant seeds inside,...
Tomatoes From Seed to Sauce – Part 4 – Time to Plant!
Starting tomato seeds inside is much the same as starting any other seed. Why do we do it at all? Often, it’s to get a head start on the season or if the growing season is too short to get any tomatoes before a fall frost. Sometimes you just want that variety that...
Recent Growing Articles
Tomatoes From Seed to Sauce – Part 3 – Tomato Characteristics – What Does That Word Mean?
Determinate, Indeterminate and Semi-determinate Determinate or Indeterminate? Tomatoes are classified by how they grow. Knowing this is an important factor to consider when choosing a variety. • Determinate (D) varieties are sometimes called bush varieties and tend to...
Tomatoes from Seed to Sauce – Part 2 – How to Choose a Tomato Variety
It has been said that the best garden advice is from ‘over a garden fence’; in other words, from other gardeners. Ask your neighbors, friends and local farmers the names of the varieties they like best. Ultimately taste should be the deciding factor, but there are...
Tomatoes From Seed to Sauce – Part 1 – History – The Love Apple’s Starting Point
Those big red round tomatoes many cherish in their gardens today aren’t like their ancestors from the Andes region of South America. Early tomato plants probably produced small yellow/orange fruit on long rangy vines that were part of the diet of the native Aztec...
Square-Foot Garden in Milk Crates!
In 1976, Mel Barthomew introduced us to his method of gardening:intensive, space saving, raised bed, no weeding in one square foot! Since then many gardeners have embraced the method and tweaked it to their own area. A great option is to reuse milk crates as the...
Successful Seed Starting – What to Plant and When
Direct seeding or transplanting by soil temperature is much more dependable than a date or counting back from the ‘frost free’ date in your area. Published ‘frost free dates’ are based on the average last (or first) date that the temperature is expected to fall below...
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